Midnight
by Artemis Day
Summary: AU What if in OOtP, Hermione decided to take drastic measures in order to stop Umbridge, in the form of a rather special website. A Harry Potter/Hell Girl Crossover.


A/N: This is just a Scary one-shot I thought of after reading a 'Hell Girl' graphic novel

**A/N: This is just a Scary one-shot I thought of after reading a 'Hell Girl' graphic novel. I thought, 'what if Hermione sent Umbridge to Hell?" And from that idea, came this. I'd also like to take this opportunity to apologize to those who have been waiting for me to update 'In Time'. I promise I am working on it. Finally, it gets a little gory about three quarters in just so you know. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!**

"_But I disagree," Hermione continued. __Professor Umbridge's eyebrows rose a little higher and her gaze became distinctly colder. __"You disagree?" She repeated… __…"Well, I'm afraid it is Mr. Slinkhard's opinion, and not yours, that matters within this classroom Miss. Granger." __"But-"Hermione began. __"That is enough…Miss Granger, I am going to take five points from Gryffindor House…" _

_"I don't hate her," said Hermione, "I just think she's an appalling teacher…" _

_"She's an awful woman," said Hermione in a small voice, "Awful…" _

_"Please continue teaching as usual. I am going to walk" – she mimed walking- "among the students"- she pointed around at individual members of the class- "and ask them questions." She pointed at her mouth to indicate talking. __Hagrid stared at her, clearly at a complete loss to understand why she was acting as though he did not understand normal English. Hermione had tears of fury now. __"You hag, you evil hag…" _

_"That foul, lying, twisting old gargoyle!" stormed Hermione half an hour later… __…"You see what she's up to? It's her thing about half-breeds all over again- she's trying to make out Hagrid's some kind of dim-witted troll, just because he had a giantess for a mother…" _

_"…We've got to do something about her…" _

The snow was falling down hard, so hard in fact that the ski lifts had been turned off and the mountains closed due to a possible blizzard. All the guests at the resort were now confined to their rooms and forced to wait it out, or they could sit around in the lobby by the fire. At first, a lot of people chose to do this, but as the night waned more and more people grew tired and decided to turn in for the night. At around 10:30 pm there were only a handful of people left sitting on one of the many couches and chairs talking to each other in hushed voices while sipping their mugs of hot chocolate.

One young girl however, sat alone. She had a rather large book propped up in her lap and was staring intently at the written words, but she was not reading them, not comprehending the information they offered. This was odd for the girl especially considering just how often she read books and how quickly she could devour one large tome and then more on to another. Her hands gripped the edges of the book so tightly an imprint of her nails was left over when she finally closed the book and set it aside on the table.

She flopped over onto her stomach and began aimlessly staring at the wall, her mind wandering once again to the toad-like woman who had been haunting her mind for months now. The thought of this woman made the girl's eyes tear up and rage erupt in the pit of her stomach. How she hated this woman, this Dolores Umbridge. Ever since she arrived in Hogwarts she had done nothing but help tarnish Harry Potter's image, she was given power above all teachers in the form of being appointed "Hogwarts High Inquisitor", she abused that power in order to humiliate Hagrid because he was a 'half-breed', something she had deemed unfit to exist.

Umbridge was an evil, disgusting, twisted, haggard bitch, so much so that she managed to make Hermione Granger, who had always prided herself in being a rational thinker and a rather calm individual, willing to do anything to stop her.

At first, Hermione came up with the idea of having Harry teach their fellow students the Defense spells they needed to learn in order to survive the impending war. They had organized a group, the D.A. they called it, with the sole purpose of teaching their classmates what Umbridge could and would not teach them. But she somehow gotten wind of that, and created 'Educational Degree Number Twenty-Four', banning all teams, groups, or clubs that she hadn't personally approved, and it was pretty obvious that she would not be approving any club that taught defensive spells any time soon.

That did not stop the D.A. though, they had persevered, and Hermione found ways to keep the club and its meetings secret from anyone who was not a member. The D.A. was working out wonderfully, the students were learning so much and neither Umbridge nor anyone else had any knowledge of it yet, but in spite of it all, Hermione knew it wouldn't last. She knew it was only a matter of time before they were caught, probably because someone in the group would have slipped up and told. Hermione had thought long ago to instill a charm in the coins given to the members in order to alert them of meetings, just in case that happened. It was a rather difficult charm which would cause the victim's face to erupt in purple pustules which were shaped in a way that they would form the word 'SNEAK', and the charm would last for weeks.

But this would not change the fact that they had been caught. It wouldn't stop Umbridge from shutting them down and doing who-knows-what to Harry. She might make him copy lines again, and probably bleed him to death. The thought sickened Hermione, and caused her hatred of the hag to grow even greater if that were possible. She could not remember the last time she had hated someone this much, it outdid the rage she'd had for Rita Skeeter last year when she was writing lies about her and Harry in the Daily Prophet. It was more than anything she had felt for Draco Malfoy or any of the other pure-blooded bigots she was forced to deal with at school. This was far worse than that because unlike those people, Hermione knew that Umbridge was pure evil. It didn't even matter if she supported Voldemort or not, the way she treated people, the bigotry she displayed, everything about her just screamed it.

The woman was not going to be stopped by just anything, they needed to first get rid of Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, he was the one who gave her the Defense job in the first place and he had made her High Inquisitor. Hermione wouldn't be surprised if Umbridge was headmistress by the end of the year, and then where would they be? Under the thumb of a bigoted, evil, toad of a woman. No, she had to be stopped before that happened.

Hermione clenched her fists and silently cried tears of anger and frustration. She knew there was no way she could overthrow the Minister, not even with the D.A.'s help. The Minister was the only reason Umbridge even held the job she did and if there was no getting rid of him, there was no getting rid of her either. Hermione felt so angry she wanted to take her heavy book and throw in right at the glass window across for her hopefully breaking it. Anything to relieve some of the pent up rage within her that she could do nothing about except get rid of the old hag, 'There has to be a way…'

"Hey!" A girl around Hermione's age said in a loud whisper, which pulled Hermione from her thoughts, and for some strange reason, she felt compelled to listen in on what the girl was saying.

"Did you hear about that website?" She was saying to her friend, who looked curiously back at the first girl.

"What website?" The second girl asked.

"It's called 'Hell Correspondence.'" The girl elaborated.

Hermione stared at the speaker, 'Hell Correspondence?'

"You can only access the website at Midnight," The first girl continued to her friend, "you write in the name of a person you hate, and then the Hell Girl will come and take them to hell."

"No way," The second girl gasped.

"It's true; I heard that a girl in my physics class wrote in her ex-boyfriend's name and…"

The rest of the conversation did not concern Hermione; she was too busy mulling over the idea of a website the sends people to Hell. It was ridiculous of course, Hermione was not a religious person in any way and did not believe in Hell, so obviously this was just a silly legend made up to scared people, because really, a website that you can send people to hell with? Preposterous…right?

An hour later, Hermione turned in for the night. But as she lay under the covers, she couldn't get those two girl's conversation out of her mind.

_"…you write the name of a person you hate, and then the Hell Girl will come and take them to Hell." __"…take them to Hell." _  
"What if it's true?" Hermione thought despite her usual reasoning, "What if such a thing does exist?"

At this point, Hermione knew the only way she could ease her thoughts was to just give it a try. She knew she wouldn't find anything, so what could it hurt to just look.

The time was 11:45 pm.

Slowly so not to wake them, Hermione snuck over to her parent's bed and grabbed the suitcase on the side. From it she pulled out her mother's laptop computer and crept softly back into the living area of the hotel room where she was sleeping on the pull-out couch. She turned the muggle device on and, somewhat shakily, began her search.

The time was now 11:57 and she had found nothing, no Hell Correspondence or Hell anything for that matter. She softly laughed at her foolishness. How could she have been so stupid as to actually think such a thing existed, there was no Hell, there was no Hell Girl, and there certainly was no 'Hell Correspondence' website, the whole thing was just ridiculous. But still, somewhere in the far reaches of her brain, Hermione hoped that the website was real, so then maybe; just maybe, there would be a way to make Umbridge pay…

She was about to turn the computer of when a sudden thought made her stop what she was doing. The girl had said the website could only be accessed at Midnight right? Maybe that's why she hadn't found anything. Hermione's eyes darted towards the digital clock on table by the curtain-covered windows. It was 11:59. One minute.

Hermione could feel tiny beads of sweat form on her brow as she began to become nervous. Her eyes continued to go from the clock to the computer screen for what felt like hours.

And then the clock read 12:00.

It was Midnight.

Hermione searched again and this time, she found herself on a frightening looking webpage with some words written in Japanese and a small text box with a button reading 'send' just below it. Hermione's eyes widened, she had found Hell Correspondence. In a very rare, reckless moment on her part, Hermione began typing.

_'Please send Dolores Umbridge to Hell.' _

She only hesitated for a moment before dragging the cursor over to 'send' and clicking on it.

In a very different world, where it is always twilight, a small, Japanese style house lay in the middle of a great forest. Beside it was a lake, in which a young looking girl currently lay on her back in. Her long black hair floating in the water behind her, her red eyes staring up at the sky, as if they were lost in thought.

From inside the house the shadow of an elderly woman could be seen endlessly working at a spinning wheel, and in another room, and old-fashioned computer sat waiting to be used. The screen suddenly came to life as a new e-mail had just been sent.

"Ai?" The old figure called from her room.

The girl in the water turned her head slightly, "hm?"

"You have a new message."

Hermione couldn't believe how stupid she'd been. It had been over five minutes now and nothing had happened, that must mean that it hadn't worked. 'Calm down Hermione,' she tried to console herself, 'it's not like you to just jump to conclusions like this.' Of course it wasn't like her to put her faith into a fairy tale either.

Hermione banged her fists against the table and let out a scream of fury, no longer caring if she woke her parents up. All that mattered to her now was that the situation suddenly seemed more hopeless than ever, there was just no stopping Umbridge.

"I should have known," Hermione muttered angrily, only this time her anger was directed towards herself for being so foolish, "I can't believe I actually thought this would work, Hell doesn't exist."

"Hell does exist!"

Hermione immediately spun around and had to place a hand to her mouth to prevent herself from screaming in shock and fear. Before her stood a teenage girl in a flowered, Japanese kimono, her flowing black hair blew across her expressionless face as if wind were blowing, and most startling of all were her eyes, which were an unnatural shade of red.

"W-who are you?" Hermione stammered searching in vain for her wand, "What d-do you want?"

"You summoned me." The girl said simply.

Once she said this, cold realization spread throughout Hermione, and she couldn't help but gasp, "You-you're Hell Girl?"

"My name is Ai," The girl continued in a haunting voice, "You have summoned me in order to take revenge on one who has wronged you."

The statement made Hermione's entire better judgment fly out the window.

"Yes I did," She said almost desperately, "Can you send Dolores Umbridge to hell?"

"I can." Ai responded and suddenly conjured up a black straw doll with a red string tied around its neck out of thin air.

"What is that?" Hermione asked nervously motioning at the doll.

Ai didn't answer, instead she held the doll out for Hermione to take, and she cautiously took it from the Hell Girl.

"If you truly wish to take revenge on those who've wronged you, "Ai began, "you must pulled the string from the dolls neck, and then the one you want vengeance on will be sent to Hell, but understand this, to curse someone is to dig a double grave."

Hermione, who until now had been examining the straw doll looked up at Ai with curiosity written on her face, "Wh-what do you mean?"

"If you want to take revenge, and you pull that string," Ai answered, "then you will enter into a covenant with me, and when you die, your soul will also be sent to Hell, and you will never know the light of heaven."

Hermione almost dropped the doll. So in order to stop Umbridge she would have basically give up her soul. Hermione couldn't even bring herself to imagine what Hell might be like; could she really do this if that was the fate that would then await her?

But then she remembered, Umbridge hadn't just hurt her, she had hurt Hagrid, and Harry, and even Professor Trelawney crossed her mind. This wasn't just about her, it was about everyone at Hogwarts, about her friends, Harry and Hagrid, especially Harry. Who knew how much more of those 'detentions' she would put him threw, perhaps enough to make him lose consciousness from too much blood loss, or even…

Hermione's fingers gripped the red string as Ai looked on expectantly, not another word would pass through her lips just yet. Hermione thought of all the horrible things Umbridge had done and would continue to do, and the more she thought, the angrier she became, and as she grew angrier, she stopped caring about what happened to her. All that mattered was stopping Umbridge, and if this was the way to do it, so be it.

She pulled the string.

At the same time Dolores Umbridge sat in her pink covered office grading papers.

"D…D…D…D…D…D…D…D…D…D…D" she muttered as she finish grading the most recent essays for her fifth year students, they just weren't comprehending what she was teaching. They were all probably still convinced that Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore were right and that they need to actually learn defensive spells. Well that wouldn't last, soon she'd find a reason to have Dumbledore sacked and then she would be Headmistress. She would of course expel Potter and snap his wand. Then he wouldn't be able to stop the next dementor attack that occurred on Privet Drive.

Umbridge grinned evilly at the thought. She couldn't wait to be rid of the brat, then he wouldn't be able to spread any lies about Voldemort returning to the ears of the students, and she would be able to educate them the right way and make them loyal followers of the Ministry, and hopefully weed out all those filthy half-breeds like that disgusting giant, Haggard or whatever his name was. It didn't really matter to her what their names were, they were beneath her anyway.

As Umbridge was happily daydreaming, she failed to notice the door to her office open and a person step in, she only realized she was no longer alone when the door slammed shut. Umbridge quickly looked up and her eyes narrowed at the strange girl, dressed in what looked like a sailor's outfit, who had just entered her office.

"What are you doing?" She asked the girl in a sickly sweet voice she often used when dealing with trouble-makers, "Students are not supposed to be out of bed at this hour."

The girl did not answerer, she simply stared at Umbridge with eyes that Umbridge had just noticed were red, and for a moment she felt a bit uneasy, but she soon regained her posture.

"I'm sorry; I believe I said no one is supposed to be out of bed this late." Umbridge repeated, getting very annoyed.

Still, the girl wouldn't answer.

Umbridge became angry, "Listen girl, I don't know who you think you are, but you cannot just come barging into a professor's office, especially at this time of night. I should have you put in detention for this, now what house are you in?"

"Pitiful shadow lost in darkness," The girl said, "Your hurtful actions to others have tainted your immortal soul."

"What are you talking about?" Umbridge demanded, but then something strange happened.

The girl and the room all seemed to dissolve around her. Umbridge closed her eyes for a moment to try and see if this was for real, but when she opened her eyes she saw that she was now in the forbidden forest. Looking down, she was shocked to see a group of little people staring up at her. Most their faces were indistinguishable, but at the front of the crowd Umbridge could she three people very clearly. One was a good looking young man with black hair, then there was a rather pretty woman dressed in a Kimono, and last was an elderly man whose eyes seemed to be shut.

All three were staring up at Umbridge with looks of disgust on their faces.

"Look at that filthy creature." The young man said to his companions.

"It's disgusting that they left such things walk around the school like this." The woman answered.

"Makes me sick, filthy half-breed." said the old man.

"What did you say?" Umbridge shouted, "I am no half-breed, I am a full blooded witch and a respected member of society, I am not one of those freaks of nature."

But no one in the crowd of small people seemed to hear her, as they had all begun jeering her in a similar fashion as the three people up front.

"Halfbreed!"

"Monster."

"Creature of Filth!"

"NO NO NO!!" Umbridge screamed, "I AM NOT ONE OF THOSE FILTHY CREATURES!!"

"Aren't you?" Said the younger man who then quickly glanced at a small body of water next to Umbridge that she had not noticed before.

Quickly, Umbridge turned toward to pond and looked down, an ear splitting scream erupted from her throat as she saw the face of the half-giant Hagrid staring back at her from the water.

"FILTHY FILTHY FILTHY!!" The crowd of little people screamed, but now Umbridge knew they were not really little people, they were normal sized. Umbridge was a giant. She closed her eyes and screamed again, but this time when she opened her eyes, the crowd and the forest had vanished. She was back in her office.

Umbridge frantically looked around for any sign of the red eyed girl or any of those people she had just seen. Then she grabbed a small mirror from her desk and stared at her reflection, her own face stared back at her. Taking a few deep breaths, Umbridge decided the whole thing had probably just been a bad dream brought on by stress, 'Yes, that must be it,' she thought to herself, 'just stress…'

But then, Umbridge's right hand seemed to take on a life of it's own. It immediately grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill, which Umbridge was shocked to recognized as the quill she made students use in detentions. She tried in vain to drop it but her hand would no longer obey her. Angry tears began to flow and she let out a shriek of anger and fear.

"Well Professor…" She heard a masculine voice say.

Umbridge looked up and a chocked sob erupted from her throat when she saw the young man, the woman, and the elderly man from her 'dream' standing before her, all three with severe expressions.

"I think it's time you had your own detention." The young man finished.

Without warning, Umbridge's hand poised itself over the parchment as if ready to start writing. Umbridge tried to use her other hand to pull herself away, but found that she was unable to move. The only part of her body that was still mobile was her quill hand, which would not move according to her will anymore. She could only watched in horror as she began writing.

_'I must not tell lies.' _  
Her other hand erupted in pain as the words appeared etched in her skin, blood dripped slowly from the wound, but it didn't stop there.

_'I must not tell lies.' __'I must not tell lies.' __'I must not tell lies.' _  
The pain was becoming unbearable. Unlike the times when students used the quill, the wounds didn't immediately seal up afterwards, they stayed opened and grew worse and worse every time she started a new line.

_'I must not tell lies.' __'I must not tell lies.' _  
"Do you think she's got the message?" The woman asked the elderly man.

"Nope, not yet." He answered shaking his head.

_'I must not tell lies.' __'I must not tell lies.' _  
Umbridge screamed as more and more blood spurted from the wounds in her hand, covering the entire top of her desk, and it just kept coming.

_'I must not tell lies.' __'I must not tell lies.' _  
"WHAT DO YOU PEOPLE WANT FROM ME!?" Umbridge screamed at the trio.

They just stared at her.

"She definitely hasn't gotten the message yet." The young man muttered to the other two.

Umbridge sobbed in pain and anger as her hand wrote the phrase again, the one she'd forced Harry Potter and others to write so many times before.

_'I must not tell lies.' __'I must not tell lies.' _  
When Umbridge looked up again, the three people were gone, and the red-eyed girl was back, wearing a flower covered Kimono this time.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" Umbridge roared.

"Do you," the girl said, ignoring Umbridge's question, "want to see what death looks like?"

With that, the girl stretched out her right arm and the flowers on her kimono flew off and sailed toward Umbridge. Suddenly, they turned dark red and dissolved into liquid form, Umbridge recoiled in horror, it was blood, her blood.

It hit her with the force of a tidal wave knocking her away from her desk. The wall behind her vanished and she plunged screaming into the darkness.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked.

"I took the Knight Bus," Hermione answered, "skiing really wasn't for me."

Harry smiled a little at his friend but it wasn't very enthusiastic.

Hermione frowned and began to console him. Just when she had convinced him the come out, the door burst open and in came the tall gangly young man they knew as Ron Weasley. He seemed to be out of breath and was waving a newspaper around in the air while trying to tell them something.

"Whoa whoa, calm down Ron," Harry said to his friend with his hands raised as if in surrender.

Ron took a moment to breathe before speaking, "Sorry mate, y-you just not going to believe this."

With that he shoved the newspaper into Harry's hands and watched expectantly as Harry read the article with Hermione leaning over his shoulder to see.

**_HOGWART'S DEFENSE INSTRUCTOR AND HIGH INQUISITOR FOUND DEAD!!_**_Earlier this morning, Filius Flitwick, professor of Charms at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry entered the office of Defense against the Dark Arts professor and Hogwart's High Inquisitor Dolores Jane Umbridge and found her lying dead at her desk. __Umbridge seems to have died from blood loss as the room was covered in blood but no official cause of death has been released and it is as of yet unknown if foul play is suspected or how this will affect the school as a whole… _  
Neither Harry nor Hermione continued reading after that, Harry stared from Ron, to Hermione, to the article again with wide eyes.

"Bloody hell." He muttered.

"I know," Ron said, "I mean, I was hoping something would happen to her to make her leave but…I never thought…"

The three of them just stood in silence taking in the situation.

"Well," Harry finally said, "I may sound horrible for saying this, but I'm not all too upset about it, the toad had it coming."

"I'll say," Ron agreed, "What do you think Hermione?"

Hermione didn't look up from the smiling picture of Dolores Umbridge when she answered.

"I think she got exactly what she deserved."

Something about that statement sent chills down both Harry and Ron's spines, but neither of them said anything. Not that they could have, for at that moment they heard Mrs. Weasley call them down to dinner, and Ron and Harry started toward the door. Ron left quickly but Harry lingered a bit when he saw Hermione still standing there staring at the newspaper.

"Are you coming?" He asked her.

"Yeah," said Hermione, "I'll be there in a minute."

Harry stood there another second before finally deciding to give her the privacy she desired.

Once Hermione was sure he was gone, she dropped the newspaper and sighed softly. She reached up and pulled her shirt down a little to expose a small black mark shaped like a crest. It was a new mark that had just appeared last night. She knew what it was and why it was there, it would serve as a constant reminder of the choice she'd made, and that by making that choice, she had sealed her fate.

Before, Hermione would have hated herself for having been so irrational and for making such a decision. But now, now things were different. Something about Hermione Granger had changed, possibly forever. She was of course still the same know-it-all bookworm she'd always been, but the knowledge that she would be in Hell when she died had made quite a difference in her personality.

She lightly touched the mark on her chest and sighed again.

'So I'm going to Hell when I die,' She thought silently, 'I suppose I should be upset about this, but there's no use in moping around. Not when there's a war to be won. I don't regret it anyway, and assuming I survive well, I'll just have to have a really great life.'

In spite of everything, Hermione smiled a little, knowing she wasn't going to let this stop her from living her life. She realized then just how hungry she was, she hadn't eaten since this morning. Taking one last look at the newspaper, and the sickeningly sweet smile on the photo Umbridge's face, Hermione turned on a heel and went downstairs to get something to eat. And throughout all this, that smile never left her face.


End file.
